Category: Blog

She swears the moon don’t hang quite as high as it used to

So!  Saturday afternoon we had a thunderstorm, a really gully-washing thunder-cracker — a weather-changer, too, thank goddess.  Knocked the temps down 12 degrees F, and cleaned out all the gunk.  Yesterday was in the mid-70sF/20sC and beautifully dry, and today,  we have more of the same.  So, yay! liveable weather.

Sadly, we did lose power during the storm — lost it, in fact, in two stages. The first snap-off/snap-back took out my mouse, so I had to shut my computer down by pushing the button on the front of the case.  And, when the storm was over?  You know where this is going, right?  Right.  Exactly nothing happened when I pushed the ‘on’ button, and nothing continued to happen during a series of restorative techniques ably applied by Steve.

This morning we took ol’ Jack into the shop, and have just now received a call from Stephanie-the-tech, who tells me, yep, it was the power supply gone south, all right, and the DVD player is toast (which it has been; I just didn’t want to unplug and schlepp (actually, Steve does the schlepping) an old and Very! Heavy! box down to the shop just for a DVD player when we had a USB player that I could plug in.), and did I want her to go ahead and do the replacements for an estimated two bills, parts and labor?

I did, and said so, at which point she confessed that her hesitation had to do with the age of the harddrive, which she makes to be on the order of  five years.  How time flies.  I guess there’s a new harddrive/data transfer in my future, sigh.

But, not today.  Today, we will have the new power supply and DVD player.  Then, after I make thorough back-ups, I’ll take it down again for the new harddrive.  Or perhaps I’ll think upon making Number Ten Ox the desktop, and live out of one, easy-to-transport, but hard to fix machine. This digital age we live in sure does make all the decisions nice and easy.

In the meanwhile, I did find Ox the laptop, which had become Lost To Me.  Turns out I’d set it (in its case) beside the couch and when Someone (looks at Trooper) initiated an indoor relay race from the top of the cat tree, over the couch and back again, knocking all the couch cushions and pillows to the floor in a glorious catsplosion, the sofa cover had also become disturbed and was half-covering the computer case and I did not recognize it for what it was, because heat rots my brain.  And, also, Coon cats assisting the search tend to like to take the lead.

So, that’s all the news that was and is — oh, wait.  I cleaned the bathroom yesterday.  The things we find time for when the computer doesn’t work…

 

Books read in 2013

Frost Burned, Patricia Briggs (e)
Through a Brazen Mirror, Delia Sherman
Protector, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Eight Million Gods, Wen Spencer (e)
Promises to Keep, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Miles to Go, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Even Money, Dick Francis & Felix Francis
Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews
Sandman Slim, Richard Kadrey
The Diviners, Libba Bray (e)
The Eighth Succession, Don Sakers
You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, Tom Gauld
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (e)
Hellspark, Janet Kagan (re-re-re-re-re-re-&c-read)
The Year of the Dog, Grace Lin
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (e)
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (a mostly true memoir), Jenny Lawson
How Dark the World Becomes, Frank Chadwick (e)
Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
French Fried, Chris Dolley (e)
My Father’s Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett (read aloud w/Steve)
Fair Game, Patricia Briggs (e)
Nymph, Francesca Lia Block (read aloud w/Steve)
Oh, Myyy, George Takei (e)
Hunting Ground, Patricia Briggs (e)
Cry Wolf, Patriacia Briggs (e)
Alpha and Omega, Patricia Briggs (e)
Miss Buncle, Married, D.E. Stevenson (read aloud w/Steve)
Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell, Phil & Kaja Foglio
Moonrise Kingdom screenplay, Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola (e)

Books read in 2013

Through a Brazen Mirror, Delia Sherman
Protector, C.J. Cherryh (read aloud with Steve)
Eight Million Gods, Wen Spencer (e)
Promises to Keep, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Miles to Go, Laura Anne Gilman (e)
Even Money, Dick Francis & Felix Francis
Magic Bites, Ilona Andrews
Sandman Slim, Richard Kadrey
The Diviners, Libba Bray (e)
The Eighth Succession, Don Sakers
You’re All Just Jealous of My Jetpack, Tom Gauld
Captain Vorpatril’s Alliance, Lois McMaster Bujold (e)
Hellspark, Janet Kagan (re-re-re-re-re-re-&c-read)
The Year of the Dog, Grace Lin
The Quantum Thief, Hannu Rajaniemi (e)
Let’s Pretend This Never Happened (a mostly true memoir), Jenny Lawson
How Dark the World Becomes, Frank Chadwick (e)
Shades of Milk and Honey, Mary Robinette Kowal
French Fried, Chris Dolley (e)
My Father’s Dragon, Ruth Stiles Gannett (read aloud w/Steve)
Fair Game, Patricia Briggs (e)
Nymph, Francesca Lia Block (read aloud w/Steve)
Oh, Myyy, George Takei (e)
Hunting Ground, Patricia Briggs (e)
Cry Wolf, Patriacia Briggs (e)
Alpha and Omega, Patricia Briggs (e)
Miss Buncle, Married, D.E. Stevenson (read aloud w/Steve)
Agatha Heterodyne and the Hammerless Bell, Phil & Kaja Foglio
Moonrise Kingdom screenplay, Wes Anderson & Roman Coppola (e)

An entry of parts

This will be a blog entry of parts.

Part the First: Shameless Self-Promotion

1.  Back in May/June, when Steve and I attended Book Expo America, one of the fun things we did was spend some time with Jim Freund, long-time host of Hour of the Wolf, on WBAI, doing an interview.   That interview aired early (early, early) this morning.  It is now archived, and you may download and listen to it at your leisure.  Here’s the link to the archive page.  Right now, our interview is the first two entries at the top.  I should also mention during the interview Steve and I read an excerpt from Trade Secrets.  Now!  There is a time limit on archive access; after 13 days our interview will roll off the bottom and Be Lost Forever.

2.  In an embarrassment of riches, Baen will be airing a podcast interview of Steve and me, tomorrow.  It should be up by noon, Eastern.  And here’s the link to the Baen podcast page (do note the Very Wide Top Margin on the page, just scroll down until you hit the podcast information).

Part the Second:  Thank you!

3.  Thank you to those very kind and generous people who have supported me in the Clarion West Write-a-Thon.  So far, we’ve raised $297 toward the organization’s operating costs.  Donations to Clarion West are tax deductible.  More information about the Write-a-Thon and Clarion West here, and here.  My personal participating author page is here.

Part the Third: To Think that I Saw it on Mulberry Street

4.  I went in to town today, which was Just Insane, but. . .Necessity.  While I was in the very sad enterprise that used to be J. C. Penney — one of two customers in the store — I had the opportunity to watch an example of Master Class Shopping.  My fellow customer had, so she told the store at large, decided to embark upon a trip, immediately, and she needed clothes.  In short order — by which I mean, in under five minutes — she had put together three coordinating outfits off of the racks, threw them on the counter, paid for them, requested that everything be left on the hangers, and was gone, leaving me in sole possession of the store.

Part the Fourth:  The Weather Outside is Frightful

5.  What it says

Part the Fourth:  Lazy Writer is Lazy

6.  If anybody needs me, I’ll be on the couch, reading a book.

#SFWApro

Raised underfoot

I see that I’m going to have to be Veeeerrrrrryyyyy Careful getting out of my chair…

Trooper at work
Trooper at work

Yes, that is Trooper with his head against my chair roller.  Earlier today, I looked down and he was in essentially the same position, but his front leg was under the roller bar.  If I’d Just Gotten Up (as I often Just Do), I’d’ve broken his leg.

In other news, progress has been made on the list I published this morning, to wit:

1.  A podcast interview (with Steve), rescheduled from yesterday RESCHEDULED TO TOMORROW
2.  Cleaning up All The Stuff Trooper threw down from those High Places that he has made his own, and deciding where in ghod’s name to put it
3.  Doing the laundry STARTED
4. Waiting for the electrician to manifest, sometime after noon
5. Paying the bills and balancing the checkbook
6.  I’m also considering vacuuming the house — but that might make for too heady a celebration I OPT OUT — and opt in for a nap, instead.  Holy freaking cow, it’s hot…

Saturday morning census

The Saturday morning cat census here in East Winslow is:
Mozart in his hammock overlooking the Cat Garden
Scrabble on the heffalumps in Steve’s office
Trooper, chasing his Special Green Spring up and down the hallway

The Saturday morning author census:
Steve in his office, tweaking and updating webpages, among other things

Sharon, still down among the commas, and hoping to be done with this part realsoonnow.

What’s doin’ at your house?

 

Five things make a post

1.  I want to thank those who have supported my efforts in the Clarion West Write-a-Thon.  Together, so far, we’ve raised $87 toward the organization’s operating costs.  I should say here that donations to Clarion West are tax deductible.  More information about the Write-a-Thon and Clarion West here, and here.  My personal participating author page is here.

2.  Those of you in or near Atlanta, Georgia may want to mark your calendars for Friday, August 2 from 8-10 p.m.  My buddy Ed DeGruy and his photography partner Aubrey Bell, will be having their first solo show at the Doo Gallery (part of the DooGood Society).  The address is 205 Holtzclaw st. Unit J, Atlanta, Georgia. There will be refreshments, and art, and interesting people present.  More information here.

3.  I have here on my floor (because Trooper has made the top of both file cabinets his own by the simple expedient of pushing all the Stuff onto the floor) an old black-and-white Nook ebook reader.  I have no more use for it; frankly, it may not even work.  Anybody either (1) want it  or (2) know if there’s anything like the used cellphone programs for ereaders?  The Nook has found a home!

4.  Not for the faint of heart:  Photographs of Lac-Megantic, before the explosion — and after.

5.  Mozart declined to have his picture taken this morning, so here’s a picture of Trooper on the cat tree:

Trooper on the cat tree
Trooper on the cat tree

 

How Thomas Dolby taught me to write

So, I’m still down among the commas, going through what I’m optimistically calling the Final Draft of Carousel Seas.  I’m actually pretty pleased with it, in meta.  There are of course, fiddly bits to be fiddled, a couple of scenes to be expanded and/or sharpened, but it was ever thus.

In point of fact, I spent this morning with a scene that I hadn’t red-lined as needing expansion; it was a pretty good scene and it did what it needed to do, which (so I thought when I was writing it) was to set up the next scene and the arrival on-screen of a character.

Now, we all know that it’s good if a scene carries its weight and also does at least one thing to move the greater story along.  Right?

But, it’s even better, if a scene can carry it’s own weight, and move the big story along, and illuminate something new about the characters, and foreshadow an upcoming piece of business, and set up the next scene, with (now) an added twist of tension.  That’s like — Super Scene.

So, anyway, tinking with this middling important bit, the work of which  had been dealing with a necessary point of plot, and setting up The Arrival.  And –I’m watching myself start to dig into the sentences, sharpening this viewpoint, upping the stakes, adding a bit of by-play to show the relationship between the two characters confronting this situation — and I’m not even thinking about what I’m doing, really, I’m just sort of doing some internal nodding, like I’m following along with whoever is actually doing the work, here:  “Yeah, that’s good.  Oh-ho!  Why didn’t I see that?  Nice, nice…” &c

I added maybe a hundred words to the scene, but it was enough to take it from a middling important scene that did its job, no muss, no fuss; to a scene that really rings some changes, and carries all that work I listed above.

And?  I can’t tell you why I made the alterations that I did.  Often when I’m going in to rework/strengthen/expand a scene, I’m going in with a game plan; an idea of what needs to be punched up (or down).  This scene wasn’t even tagged as a problem; I had no game plan.  I read the scene, my fingers rolled the screen back to the beginning and I started in, without any idea that anything was wrong, but a feeling that something could be better.

Which is why writing is an art, not a science.

Oh, and about Thomas Dolby?

The first time I heard “She Blinded Me With Science,” my ear wouldn’t make sense  of it — there were too many “unnecessary” and “distracting” bits of business going on that had nothing to do — in my opinion as a non-musician — with the music.

And, yet — try to take out the seeming side-bits, and you get something that’s. . .flat, less diverse, and very much less joyously loony.

So now you know what it’s like, down here among the commas, at least some of  the time.

I’m going to go get some lunch, and get back to it.

#SFWApro

And now for something completely different

Frequent readers of this space will recall that Steve and I, among many others,  contributed an essay to Dragonwriter: A Tribute to Anne McCaffrey and Pern.  The table of contents, with links to samples from each essay are now available for you — yes, you! — to read.

Here’s your link.

And it’s back to the living room office and the final day of red-pen-editing of Carousel Seas.  Tomorrow, I’ll be at the keyboard, inputting corrections, expanding zipped scenes, and straightening out one tiny little plot-kink.

No, the glamor never does stop. . .

#SWFApro